Chapter 4: The Brink
21 May 2045
Special Region, Russian Sector
Russian artillery guns were firing nearly constantly and the gunfire of various engagements continued in the distance on the second day of Phase I of Operation Red Tide. Encampment after encampment were being wiped out by the heavy guns of the 40th Guards Tank Brigade and then mopped up by 27th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. Operation Red Tide was showing to be a resounding success despite the unfamiliar terrain.
However, casualties were not non-existent. Six riflemen were killed due to the unexpected appearance of active cloaking and incendiary weapons amongst the enemy forces, including Senior Sergeant Maxim Shvedov of the KSSO Vampir Team. He took a direct hit from an incendiary projectile and had his arm blown off before succumbing to wounds an hour later. There were also around a hundred wounded personnel. Most of them were not serious and easily treatable in the field, but two dozen were admitted to field hospitals and seven had been evacuated to nearby civilian hospitals on the other side of the gate for more intensive treatment.
Svetlana was sat inside of a medical tent herself, receiving a check up for any head injuries or infection after being tossed like a ragdoll by an explosion. A few pieces of shrapnel also had to be pulled out of her arm which was a fun experience. All-in-all, though, she was basically fine, but she probably wouldn't get back in the field before Operation Red Tide Phase I ended... Not unless something went very wrong, at least.
"How are you doing, Lieutenant?" Malyenko asked, walking into the tent where most of Vampir's casualties were being treated.
Malyenko's command team was pretty much the only Vampir element not to suffer a casualty. Since they were mainly providing covering fire for the other two squads, very little enemy fire reached them.
Svetlana stood up as the nurse stepped back and gave Malyenko a slightly off-balance salute.
"Still a little dizzy but other than that I'm good." She said.
"Christ, sit down then." He rolled his eyes and gently pushed Svetlana back down into the medical cot.
She sighed as she was made to sit back down and swatted Malyenko's hand away before acquiescing. She wasn't lying though - she was pretty much fine compared to some of the others.
"I'm fine, Cap..." Seeing his incredulous look, she added an addendum, "Okay, so I'll be fine in ten days..."
"That's a better answer." He sat down next to her, "I already spoke to Mendenetsa, he'll take over command of Vampir-1 for now. With this, you may just get your wish, you know..."
"My wish...?" She looked at him in confusion.
"Yep, to go back to sniping. The Colonel spoke to me earlier, he said that it was a mistake to ever take you and Zaytseva and fold you into the the main fireteams. He's going to pull a few strings and get another KSSO officer in until Mendenetsa can complete the training. It's not ideal, but the men will make do."
"Huh..." She blinked.
"...Wow, talk about enthusiasm."
"Ah, s-sorry. I just didn't expect the bureaucratic chain to move that quickly."
"Well, we're at war now." Said Malyenko, "And the KSSO have always been more flexible than most of the Russian Ground Forces."
She nodded along before lying back, sighing softly. She had been running on overdrive for the past few weeks and this was the first break she had gotten. With war preparations happening so quickly in order to mount an expedition through the Gate as soon as possible, matched with a large deployment to the USCA and Eastern Military District to counter the Chinese build up on the border, the entire Russian military had not had a single break. That spread all the way down to the lower echelons of the special forces too. The VMF, GRU, SVR, FSB, KSSO... everything was being mobilised and deployed en masse. Hell, there were currently three thousand Russian troops that had crossed the Gate, nearly a sixth of them were from various special forces groups.
But now she was barred from deployment for a few days and she was thinking. She was letting everything catch up to her and was realising how bizarre it is that they are in a real, down-to-earth fantasy world where seeing flocks of wyverns flying across the sky is a common occurrence and the opposing forces are conjuring explosive orbs out of thin air.
All of this led to one more question: What next?
23 May 2045
UN Conference Building, New York City
"We shall now take a vote on United Nations Security Council Resolution 3098."
All of the UNSC representatives cast their votes in regards to the resolution. It was being taken in regards to the recent Japanese claim that all of the lands on the other side of the Gate, collectively titled 'the Special Region', were a part of Japan. From the point of view of Russia, there was only one nation sat around this table that would actually vote no. Interestingly enough, this member state was Japan itself.
There was some concern that one of the five Permanent Security Council members would veto it. Russia, for obvious reasons, was never going to veto it. China was never going to side with Japan and the United Kingdom was likely just going to vote the same way as the United States.
So that left two members who could do so: the United States and France. That is why that the Russian Federation had taken a few steps in order to assure the United States' cooperation in passing Resolution 3098. The only thing the US was going to get out of vetoing this vote is scans of the Gate in Tokyo, however, President Tarasov had hinted to President White that Russia was willing to offer the same scans with a few extra bonuses too. For example, in the same exchange it was heavily implied that American corporations could receive mining rights to a few resource rich areas of the Russian Sector on Titan. The US might also see a slight reduction in tariffs on US goods for the purpose of 'broadening our relationship'. Compared to what Japan was willing to offer, the Russian Federation frankly had a better deal. Add that onto America already being predisposed to reject Japan's claims and there was no way they were going to veto it.
The only wild card in this regard was France - but they had no love for Japan's plight either. There was also a general opinion that the UK, France, and China were all planning to mount their own expeditions eventually, so stopping Japan in its tracks right now could only help them later on.
As a result, when the vote was finished, there was little surprise when it came out as 14–1–0, with only Japan rejecting the resolution and no abstentions. With it fully passed, the Russian Federation had supranational backing to continue its operations in the Special Region and Japan's international relations had taken a rather hefty hit. Now it was time to bring in troops from the other members of the CSTO in order to increase the legitimacy of the Russian invasion.
25 May 2045
Columns of Indian and Iranian vehicles were streaming through the Gate. Both nations were contributing supersized combat elements of 300 men each to Russia's current expeditionary forces. Whilst very small compared to the current divisional forces in the Special Region, plans were already in motion to expand the foreign contingents as the alliance's capacity to support larger deployments expanded in the region. Since it had no modern infrastructure to speak of, it simply was not practical to deploy larger contingents. So for the moment, the involved units were limited to elements of the 1 and 9 Para SF from the Indian Army, the Saberin Takavar Brigade from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and a smaller detachment from the USCA's Spetsnaz units.
Alongside their Indian, Iranian, and Turkic allies, the Russian Army Aviation corps was also beginning to transfer a large number of helicopters and drones across the Gate in preparation for the beginning of Phase II of Operation Red Tide: a concerted attack to push the Saderan Empire out of the valley. Once that was done, Phase III could begin in earnest: the construction of an airbase in order to bring to bear the full capabilities of the Russian Air Force on the Empire. For now they would make do with Mi-32s, Mi-40s, and a small number of Russian Navy Yak-45 V/STOL jets capable of operating off of short dirt strips for air cover.
The general expectation was that the valley area could be secured by mid-April despite concerns about resistance from the local civilian population. Preliminary construction of an airbase had already begun with operational capability expected to be achieved by August or September.
26 May 2045; 0600 Hours
Zabaykalsky Krai, Russian Federation
"Incoming!" A Russian officer shouted, pushing one of his men to the ground as a shrill screaming pierced the air.
To the left, there was a flash of light followed by an earth-shattering whump. The rocks on the ground vibrated and bounced as two more flashes and pressure waves tore apart the air. Then there was silence. A few of the Russians thought that the onslaught had already ended - but they were soon proven wrong as a flash of light struck a Typhoon-K MRAP some distance behind the line. The clap of thunder reached their ears a fraction of a second later, followed by falling debris. Hastily, the machine gun operator and driver of the Typhoon-K crawled out of the mangled vehicle with bloodied faces and fell into the cratered earth. No sooner were they helped away from the remains of the MRAP and into a foxhole than a secondary explosion tore apart the bullet proof sheets, catapulting razor sharp fragments of metal in all directions at speeds in excess of 900 m/s.
"How many does that make that?" A Naval Infantryman asked, picking up his RPK-16 and resting the bipod on the edge of his foxhole, aiming up onto a hill.
As he spotted a short burst of movement, he sent a three-round burst of 5.45 rounds flying up the hill, a single blue tracer using copper chloride colourant standing out against the nearly pitch black background. These short bursts of fire were exchanged on both sides, all the way up the line, creating a light show of blue Russian tracers and green Chinese tracers.
"Sixteen. That's sixteen 80 mil shells." Another said, shaking his head and shouting, "Lieutenant, have Section got a fucking bead yet?"
His slightly frazzled voice was accented by the firing of a VPK-7829 Bumerang's 30 mm autocannon as it tore apart the enemy occupied hilltop.
"Yeah!" The Lieutenant shouted back over the constant gunfire, "Counter battery's opening up now!"
As if hearing his comment, the sound of twelve 2S31 Vena self-propelled mortar carriers firing drowned out the measly 5.45 mm and 30 mm shots fired on the front line. The 120 mm 2S31 Vena mortar carriers had by far the largest gun on this battlefield and it truly showed as the sky behind the hill was lit up by a dozen successive impacts from high explosive shells. And just like that, the Chinese mortars fell silent.
Moments later, two Bumerang AFVs surged forwards followed by a platoon of naval infantry. From behind their own position, their platoon heard a shout from someone they had not expected to hear all the way on the front line: Major Guryev.
"Move it, soldiers, we're retaking the hilltop tonight!" He shouted.
Everyone turned to the Lieutenant for directions who, looking mildly exasperated, said, "You heard the man, we're moving!"
All four-hundred naval infantrymen launched a general attack up the hill, supported by three dozen Bumerang AFVs and a dozen more heavily armed and armoured Kurganets-25 AFVs. With the overwhelming superiority of Russian mechanised forces, the charge up the hill was over with quickly close-quarters fighting began between the Russian and Chinese forces.
One infantryman jumped into a prone position at the lip of a dugout trench before grabbing a grenade off of his kit and pulling the pin. He rolled the RGO grenade into the dugout and then hunkered down as it exploded. Picking his AK up off the ground, he jumped into the trench and, with a scream, thrust the bayonet into a nearby soldier, one of the few not killed by the grenade.
Some distance across the way, a Kurganets-25 thundered across a trench as if it were not there, rattling off 45 mm telescoped rounds towards a ZBL-08. The high powered cannon rounds tore the IFV apart before the same Kurganets fired a Goplit-II missile into the side of it. The ATGM designed to take on main battle tanks easily penetrated the comparatively weak armour of the ZBL-08 and caused the ammo rack and fuel to explode in a brilliant light show. Switching targets, the AFV began ruthlessly cutting down infantry.
As the Sun began to peak over the horizon, the destruction of last night's battle began to be revealed to the world. Down at the bottom of the hill, by a small Russian village, three Typhoon-K MRAPs and a single Bumerang IFV were burning wrecks, mainly destroyed by Chinese 82 mm mortars. 16 Naval Infantry lay dead with a further 25 wounded where they had dug in to defend the village. Up on the hill top that was occupied by Chinese forces, six ZBL-08 IFVs had been destroyed in the counter-attack. They continued to cook off with another small explosion every few minutes. A quick analysis concluded that 57 unmarked PLA troops had lost their lives due to the Russian Naval Infantry's superior firepower. An unknown number of wounded had been pulled from the field.
Thus ended the short lived skirmish at Krasnokamensky.
"Madame President, I just received word that the scans of the Gate the Russians promised us have arrived through the Joint Research Group."
President White smiled and said, "Of all the things Tarasov is, he's not a liar... Is there anything else?"
White frowned as she saw the look her aide took immediately after that. It was the same look they all had when she had asked what if the military build up between Russia and China goes hot a few weeks ago.
"...Neither the Russian nor Chinese governments have confirmed this, but MI6 has passed on credible information via the Five Eyes that suggest unmarked Chinese forces have been making border raids. Artillery fire has also been exchanged across the border and the Russian military is entering mass mobilisation."
"...Jesus Christ."
White was absolutely speechless. How had the world gone this far into hell in less than a month? At the start of May, everything was going pretty much fine. A period of political unrest in Eastern Europe was coming to an end, climate change was slowing down, and an influx of resources from the solar system had revitalised global resource markets, ending the resource wars before they even began. Now, coming to the end of May, Russian and Chinese troops wereexchanging artillery fire and edging closer to the brink of war and the US found its special relationship with Japan strained over the Gate. These days she had a better time speaking with President Tarasov than Prime Minister Hōjō.
"What do you recommend doing?" White asked eventually.
"I recommend setting the 3rd and 7th fleets to DEFCON 2, alongside the USAF Global Strike Command." Said the National Security Advisor.
"Wait- Won't that provoke a response from the Chinese Navy?" Asked the Secretary of State.
"It's either this or leave ourselves open to an attack at this stage. What do you think, Madame President?"
What do I think...
"Bring them up to DEFCON 2 and increase our presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Send a request to the Australian Navy to join us with their nuclear submarine fleet - and a request to Prime Minister Webb to deploy one of the Royal Navy's new carrier groups." Ordered White, "I want as many US allies ready to combat the Chinese Navy as possible in case this picks up."
"At once, Madam President."
A very similar conversation was going on in Beijing almost simultaneously.
"President Xie!" An aide to the Chinese President burst into his office in a panic, startling the ageing man and the cabinet members present.
"What is it, Yaozu?" He asked, standing up.
"General Tian attacked a Russian village over the border near Mongolia last night!"
Xie's eyes widened and his mouth hung ajar for a second as he mouthed what. After almost a minute of his voice failing him, he finally spoke up, "What... What happened?"
"Two hundred unmarked PLA troops from his 13th Division crossed the border at 2 AM last night, apparently with the goal of destroying a Russian village to... instigate a war."
"Is he insane?!" Xie was quite glad that the Minister of State Security spoke up at that time, because he was once again lost for words.
Meanwhile, the more analytical General Fang asked the aide a question, "What was the result?"
Fearing the worst, Xie closed his eyes and waited to hear that the Russian civilians had been massacred and to expect Russia's nuclear arsenal to be pointed at Beijing any second now. Thankfully, that wasn't it.
"General Tian's soldiers were beaten back by Russian marines a kilometre short of the village, suffering heavy losses."
That... was so much better than the alternative.
"Someone get out there and arrest that fool General Tian right now. And reach out to President Tarasov - if we don't tread carefully we could end up starting a world war."
"Of course, sir." The Minister of State Security left immediately. Xie would not put it past that man to personally go and intern Tian for this treason.
"...and begin war preparations."
Just as it looked like things were going to get back on track, a second aide rushed in.
"Paramount leader, the US Navy is deploying in force to the Pacific and the Royal Navy has announced plans to upscale its own deployment in the South China Sea!"
...as if it couldn't get worse.
Russian citizens lined up in droves outside of the rearmament centre outside of St Petersburg. They were going through a warehouse, picking up a uniform, body armour, a rifle, and a helmet before going out to join up with their regional units. Hundreds were forming up outside this one centre - and there was a dozen in St Petersburg alone. Thousands across Russia.
The call had been made by the Security Council of the Russian Federation to bring up the Russian reservists - all two million of them. Ten thousand men a day were being mobilised and that was only increasing as more and more warehouses were opened. By the end of the month, 300,000 new soldiers were expected to be at the disposal of the Russian Armed Forces. In the East, local militias were being formed up alongside the reservists, and the Russian Air Force's entire fleet of Tu-210 'Barrier' spaceplanes were heading to orbit armed with nuclear missiles. On the Chinese border, the Rosgvardiya had superseded the local police whilst the army brought in Mobile SAM launchers and the air force evacuate VIPs westwards. Martial law was the only law that applied in the cities near the Chinese border now.
Over in China, the PLAN was putting to sea in five carrier strike groups whilst its ballistic submarine fleet scattered to the wind to avoid detection and being alpha struck. Airbases were going on high alert, a build up of forces near Taiwan was observed, and they too began the process of calling up reservists.
Across the Pacific, elements of the 3rd Fleet in port were putting to sea and linking up with Australian and British allied elements in the area. The West Coast was going on lockdown with a massive deployment of national guard and US army forces.
In Iran, quick reaction forces were flooding to the Pakistani border and into India to assist their allies in holding off a potential Chinese attack whilst India itself put their two carriers to sea and mobilised their own reserves.
Across the globe, preparations for a World War were beginning, all because of a border incident triggered by a gung-ho General.
Suddenly the entire Two Gates Incident was seeming very small.
The GATE part of this story didn't feature much in this chapter... oops. It will be more prevalent next time. Probably. Maybe.